Department of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences
Professor Laurence Smith reflects on the impact of drought and climate change on “economic powerhouse rivers” and offers ideas to reimagine their use, such as diverting rivers to deposit sediment on fragile coastline or removing structures to restore rivers to a free-flowing state. “Radical new thinking is the only way to make sure our rivers endure,” he said. “There are no new rivers left to tap.”
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Brown Daily Herald

Brown study Breathe Providence monitors local air quality

To better understand the local distribution of air quality, University researchers (including professor Meredith Hastings) are setting up air pollution monitors across Providence in a study called Breathe Providence. Funded by the Clean Air Fund, the study aims to provide communities — especially those of lower socioeconomic status — with data to inform pollution reduction initiatives.
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DEEPS Assistant Professor Daniel Ibarra shared his thoughts with the Brown Daily Herald in their recent story about Brown's Southeast Asian Studies Initiative: "It’s a way for the students to push the faculty and the upper administration to think: How can we not just be a local university, but how can we expand our global impact?”
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Impakter

Are We Alone? NASA Begins New UFO Research

DEEPS alumnus David Grinspoon ’82, senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, has been selected by NASA to participate in its independent study team on unidentified aerial phenomena, aka UFOs. The first of its kind at NASA, the team will analyze unclassified data on documented UFO sightings with the aim to shed light on the potential nature of the recorded encounters.
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“All bets are off” when it comes to how climate systems will respond to more warming, warned DEEPS Professor Kim Cobb. This story is part of an ongoing series answering some of the most fundamental questions around climate change, the science behind it, the effects of a warming planet, and how the world is addressing it.
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Ethan Kyzivat, PhD candidate in Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, discusses the challenges in making maps of wetlands and their importance to climate change. This talk was part of Research Matters, featuring short talks about research by Brown University Graduate Students on April 21, 2022.
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Kristin Kimble, PhD Candidate in Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, describes how she uses marine sediment from the tropical Pacific Ocean to reconstruct how Earth’s climate has changed from three million years ago to the present. This talk was part of Research Matters, featuring short talks about research by Brown University Graduate Students on April 21, 2022.
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NASA’s InSight lander recorded a magnitude 4 marsquake caused by a massive meteoroid strike. “It’s unprecedented to find a fresh impact of this size,” said Assistant Professor (Research) Ingrid Daubar, who leads InSight’s Impact Science Working Group. “It’s an exciting moment in geologic history, and we got to witness it.”
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NASA will host a virtual media briefing at 2 p.m. EDT (11 a.m. PDT) on Thursday, Oct. 27, to share new scientific findings based on observations from the agency’s InSight Mars lander and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). One of the participants will be Ingrid Daubar, DEEPS Assistant Professor (Research) and InSight impact science lead.
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The David and Lucile Packard Foundation

Assistant Professor Harriet Lau Receives Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering

One of the newest DEEPS faculty members, Assistant Professor Harriet Lau, has received the prestigious Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering. This is in recognition of Harriet's outstanding work to understand the relationships between Earth's deformation and climate.
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A new paper published by Frontiers, led by Assistant Professor (Research) Christopher Horvat, challenges our current understanding of the Antarctic ecology and the lifecycles of growth that happen under the ice. 
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Stockholm University

Karen Kohfeld '90

DEEPS Alumna Dr. Karen E. Kohfeld '90 received an Honorary Ph.D. from the Faculty
of Natural Sciences at Stockholm University. She is currently serving as Director and Professor in the School of Environmental Science and Professor in the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University.
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A recent article by DEEPS Professor Amanda H. Lynch and Maine Law Professor Charles Norchi which appeared in the journal International Law Studies has been awarded the 2022 Myres S. McDougal Prize for International Law. The article is titled "Arctic Navigation and Climate Change: Projections from Science for the Law of the Sea", and is available to read online.
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A new paper co-authored by Associate Professor Ralph Milliken and Senior Research Scientist Takahiro Hiroi examines the Formation and evolution of carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu using samples returned by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft (JAXA mission). DEEPS alumn Seiji Sugita also contributed to the research.
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The Mars lander’s seismometer picked up vibrations and sounds from four impacts in the past two years, a development detailed in a study co-authored by Brown planetary scientist Ingrid Daubar.
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